By Steve Hsu
The podcast currently has 125 episodes available.
00:00 Introduction and summary of my trip to Shanghai
02:33 Understanding China and its knowledge problem
06:54 Physics seminars in Shanghai and Beijing
15:54 Insights into Chinese academia, challenges in scientific culture
22:43 Historical contributions: Two Bombs, one satellite
27:02 He Jiankui and gene editing, plus the future of biotech in China
33:32 China's AI and chip war strategy and impact of U.S. policies on semiconductor industry
35:46 Quiet confidence in China's technological advancements
37:17 Discovering my family history in Yunnan etched in stone
41:04 Climbing Jade Mountain and election night reflections
48:30 Exploring Shanghai's modern infrastructure and technology
51:16 High-speed rail experience in China
53:12 Why you should recalibrate your perception of China and visit
Links to X posts made during my trip - check out the whole timeline
during this period.
PPP and US vs PRC Real GDP
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1851653168158949492
PhD student asks me whether Jews control US politics:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1852179736035778768
Note to retards, on "Chicoms":
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1852195575434715645
Yu Min and the Chinese H-bomb:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1852497112635671016
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1852497765353558371
Me and He Jiankui:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1852693355601199262
Dali:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1853239642075648356
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1853247317840629820
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1853301562480718195
Lijiang:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1854395254105047484
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1854503079669838057
MAGA on the Mountain:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1854015799901495674
Business-class lie flat seats on HSR:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1855042439280791977
Kumming:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1855050351755641106
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1855409317937098864
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1855748351855071433
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1856215080637215222
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1856239700362834006
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1856533059509653578
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1856634646160683273
Shanghai:
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1857282310099386857
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1857391783770276314
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1857574060122845381
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1857653348557603255
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1858033981276467535
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
Han Feizi is the pseudonym of a columnist for Asia Times, who covers the Chinese economy, technology, and US-China competition. The author lives in Beijing, and has an extensive background in finance and investment banking.
Han Feizi's articles for Asia Times: https://asiatimes.com/author/han-feizi/
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the guest: Han Feizi
01:39 What it's like in Beijing right now
06:38 Modern Conveniences in Beijing
12:11 What the economy feels like for ordinary people
19:09 China's economic structure: consumption, infrastructure investment, Michael Pettis
30:32 Currency Valuation and PPP: real PRC is significantly larger than US economy
31:45 US high living standards and manufacturing competitiveness
34:13 Globalization and its discontents
40:15 Reversing globalization and the myth of American exceptionalism
45:58 China's increasingly high quality standards and quality of life
58:09 Whither China? Xi Jinping
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
--
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
This is a crossover episode with the Seeking Truth From Facts podcast.
Links:
Iran ballistic missiles and missile defense
https://stevehsu.substack.com/p/iran-vs-israel-implications-for-missile
Pershing 2 Missile
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1843450614552113316
Russia-Ukraine war and Iran blowback
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1844551899103863154
India development
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1814994391502667953
https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1815047688829706279
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
--
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
Samo Burja founded Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that investigates the political and institutional landscape of society. He is a Senior Research Fellow in Political Science at the Foresight Institute where he advises on how institutions can shape the future of technology. Since 2024, he has chaired the editorial board of Palladium Magazine, a non-partisan publication that explores the future of governance and society through international journalism, long-form analysis, and social philosophy. From 2020 to 2023, he was a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation where he studied how institutions can endure for centuries and millennia.
Samo writes and speaks on history, institutions, and strategy with a focus on exceptional leaders that create new social and political forms. Image has systematized this approach as “Great Founder Theory.”
Steve and Samo discuss:
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
--
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU.
Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
This is a crossover episode in which https://x.com/loubohan interviews me for his podcast Deus Ex Machina.
I was obviously in an exuberant mood for this interview - it's one of my favorites!
Deus Ex Machina podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7mXUfNJdNnOjGfu6VGactr?si=Y3j1OZG4QsGdPhXd8dKsrw…
Timestamps:
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
–
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
This is a crossover episode in which Alf of the Seeking Truth from Facts podcast interviews Steve Hsu about the Chinese economy and political system, and US-China competition.
Seeking Truth From Facts podcast: https://substack.com/@seekingtruthfromfacts/p-148705853
Steve and Alf discuss:
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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
This is a short episode recorded at the end of a trip to Caltech (LA), Frankfurt, and Reykjavik.
Black hole information and replica wormholes at Caltech (talk slides):
https://stevehsu.substack.com/p/black-hole-information-and-replica
00:00 Intro: summer in Iceland
02:04 deCODE genetics
05:52 Chess: Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik
11:56 Hyperscaling genAI
23:11 Synthetic data and Hyperscaling
24:26 Is the Transformer architecture enough for AGI?
29:45 Quantum black holes
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
--
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
Robin Hanson is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He has worked in a variety of fields, including Physics, AI, Economics, and Futurism.
Follow him at https://x.com/robinhanson
"When the typical economist tells me about his latest research, my standard reaction is 'Eh, maybe.' Then I forget about it. When Robin Hanson tells me about his latest research, my standard reaction is 'No way! Impossible!' Then I think about it for years." -- Prof. Bryan Caplan, GMU
0:00 Introduction
00:34 Welcome and Manifest conference introduction
03:12 Robin Hanson: Education and Early Influences
08:38 Transition from Physics+AI to Social Science and Economics
22:02 Prediction Markets: Potential and Challenges
28:37 Cultural Drift and Challenges to Modern Society
40:49 Fertility and Demography
48:37 Life as a Polymath
59:27 Future of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation Question
01:09:29 Audience Q&A
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
--
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
Steve discusses China myths and realities with Victor, a tech founder who ran a company in Beijing for 7 years. Among the topics covered: economic growth, real estate bubble, technology innovation, human capital, freedom of expression, Confucianism and Culture.
00:00 Introduction
02:02 Post-COVID economy and bursting of the real estate bubble
08:25 Semiconductor Industry and US-China Tech War
16:57 STEM Education and Workforce: China vs US
20:36 Slides on PRC human capital deepening, STEM and total workforce
39:58 Economic indicators and potential war economy
41:03 Singapore as model for PRC development, leadership exchanges
45:45 Travel plans, changes since pre-COVID era, YouTube travel content
53:00 Freedom of expression
1:02:20 Confucianism, leadership styles
1:17:57 Backyard Addendum: Further thoughts, travel to China
Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.
--
Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
Earlier episode, Harvard Veritas:
https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/harvard-veritas-interview-with-a-recent-graduate-anonymous-18
Chapter markers:
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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on Twitter @hsu_steve.
The podcast currently has 125 episodes available.